


Starting Over

by DesertVixen



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force-ghost Luke, Gen, SW Legends Fusion, Stackpole and Zahn compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 02:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14510151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: An important meeting on TatooineSW Legends fusion





	Starting Over

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/gifts).



“Tatooine,” Leia said softly, looking at Mos Eisley as they flew overhead. “It’s been a long time.”

Chewie growled.

“It hasn’t gotten any better, I’ll give you that,” Leia said with a hint of a smile.

Rey looked around. It didn’t seem that bad to her. Compared to what she had known on Jakku, it was bustling and almost cosmopolitan. But, as numerous people had told her, Jakku was pretty much nowhere.

Chewie grumbled a question, one that Rey had to admit she shared. Why were they here? Certainly, Leia wasn’t thinking of basing out of Tatooine.

“This is where they wanted to meet,” Leia replied patiently. “So, this is where we meet.”

*** 

They met in a ruined palace – Leia explained it had once belonged to a Hutt crime lord named Jabba – and Rey found the dimness soothing after the stark brightness outside. 

Rey watched as Chewie enthusiastically enfolded an older man with dark skin in a Wookiee hug. The older man wasn’t the only waiting for them – there was also a slim man with an alert watchful air, a dark-haired woman and a young man who strongly resembled her, and a woman shrouded in a gray cloak.

“Chewie, let Lando breathe,” Leia said, then threw her own arms around him. Rey stared a little – she’d heard of General Lando Calrissian, hero of the Rebellion and well-known in slightly disreputable circles due to his sharp business tactics. Of course, Han Solo had told some tall tales, but insisted everyone featuring Lando were all true.

The slim man waited until Leia turned Lando loose, then held out his hand. “It’s been a long time.”

“Yes, it has, Talon.” Leia looked at him gravely. “I wish it were under better circumstances.”

He lowered his voice. “He’s gone for good then.”

Leia nodded. “Yes.”

“Mara said as much, but I hoped…” He shook his head.

“We can all use a little more hope,” Leia said quietly. Then she smiled thinly as he raised an eyebrow. “Don’t worry, we have some more tangible resources.” She turned to the dark-haired woman. “Mirax! I’m glad you could come.”

“You know we’re in,” Mirax Terrik Horn said with a grin that almost met her eyes. “Valin’s learning the family business.”

“They could both come in handy.” Leia turned to the cloaked woman. “Mara?”

Rey watched in fascination as the woman shoved back her hood, shifted her cloak. Red hair tumbled around a sad, weary face, and a lightsaber hung at her belt. “Leia.”

Leia laid a land on Rey’s shoulder. “This is Rey, Luke’s student. Rey, Mara Jade.”

*** 

Rey couldn’t quite believe she was traveling in this elevated company. It had been one thing to find the Falcon and then find Han Solo himself. She had found that while he was every bit as large as his legend, he’d been a relatable person. Meeting Leia Organa Solo – also a legend – had been intense but Rey had seen the woman inside the General. It was one of the things she could not comprehend about Kylo Ren – he’d been given a pair of incredible people as parents, and he wanted them to die, to go away. He had actually killed his own father. She still thought that saving him was possible, maybe even necessary, but Rey knew it wouldn’t be easy.

Then she’d met Luke Skywalker – hero of the Rebellion, Jedi Knight. He had not been anything like her expectations, anything like the Luke Skywalker who lived in her imagination. But in the end, he had been incredible as well. 

Despite all his mocking of her idea that he would rush in and save everything, he had done it. Luke Skywalker had saved what was left of the Resistance – the Rebellion – as surely as he’d done when he made the shot that took out the Death Star. Then he had…gone away.

This meeting on Tatooine was like walking into a room of smuggler legends. Talon Kaarde. Lando Calrissian. Mirax Terrik. But it was Mara Jade that intrigued Rey. Mara Jade, and the lightsaber hanging from her belt.

Rey’s wanderings brought her to a large room where a pair of people – Mara Jade and the young man from before. They held lightsabers – brilliant green, silvery gray – and dueled in an effortless dance. Rey had done well enough in her own two battles to win, but she knew she would benefit from more training. She had hoped for more training from Luke Skywalker, but he had given her knowledge that was more important.

The two figures halted and snapped their lightsabers off, turning to look at Rey.

“Are you a Jedi?” Rey blurted out. The visual record of the duel between Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker – or rather, Skywalker’s projection – had been played and passed around until Rey thought she could recite it from memory. One line had especially resonated with Rey – Skywalker’s declaration that he would not be the last Jedi. It would be nice to know that all the responsibility didn’t fall on her shoulders alone.

Mara Jade smiled thinly. “Not according to Luke Skywalker,” she said. “He wanted the Jedi to end.”

Rey realized that Mara Jade might not have seen the duel footage. “I hear he changed his mind.”

Mara’s face was impassive. “It was never his to end. The First Order may have thought that killing Luke Skywalker would end the Jedi, make sure there were no Force users left to challenge them. But there are plenty of us left.”

“Us?” Rey hated the feeling of being the only one in the conversation who didn’t know what was going on.

“Force users who don’t call themselves Jedi.” The young man clipped the lightsaber at his belt and extended a hand. “Valin Horn. You must be Rey.”

“There were Force users before the Jedi, and there were Force users afterwards, like the witches of Dathomir. The Force can’t be stopped. People may not always realize they’re hearing it, but it is always there. It called down to Valin’s father, led him to a lightsaber belonging to a grandfather he didn’t even know about.”

Rey thought about the lightsaber in Maz Kanata’s castle calling to her, the voice calling her name. The lightsaber now felt like an extension of herself. It was good to know she wasn’t the only one who’d had the experience.

“Luke realized himself that some things about the Jedi were not valuable, like the lack of emotional attachments. So, he went searching for truth,” Mara said softly. “But I always thought he would come back. And now he is gone.” 

*** 

She couldn’t sleep. Talon Kaarde had picked Jabba’s palace because it was out of the way, and because he had a sense of history. Mara, however, found it unsettling. It was haunted by the past, by the people who had suffered here, specters of the past. She had been here too, once, trying to stop Luke Skywalker. The rancor cage seemed especially bad, especially dark.

Somehow, she wasn’t surprised to see Luke Skywalker appear before her.

“Mara,” he said after a moment.

“Long time no see,” she said, forcing a light tone.

The force-ghost Luke smiled. “You haven’t changed.”

There was so much she wanted to say, to ask, but the only word that came out was “Why?”

_Why did you leave us?_

“I had to.” She could see the pained look on his face. 

Mara had felt him come blazing back into the Force and felt him slip away. “We needed you,” she said softly.

“I know I failed you,” he replied. “I failed to listen to you when you were right.”

She had warned him about Ben Solo. “I would have preferred to be wrong.”

“I leave my last student with you,” he continued. “Help Rey, and the others I know are out there.”

She stared at him for a moment, willing him to say something that acknowledged all they had once been to each other – all they could have been, except for his mistake. Before she could make a demand, however, he vanished, leaving her alone. _Typical_ , she thought, _refusing to let me have the last word_.

Mara would do what he asked. She knew there were others out there, others who needed to know they weren’t alone. 

She would do what she could, for Luke Skywalker’s memory, and for a vision of the future – a future that included one particular Force user.

Her own son - and his.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like it! This was the original piece I was working on for you, but it wasn't quite ready by deadline., 
> 
> The Resistance is going to need some of its old smuggler buddies, I think. (Don't even get me started on the logistics of the movie, okay)
> 
> I wanted to explore the fusion idea a little more deeply, and bring in the rest of the Legends crowd. I hope it works.


End file.
